With a Federal Election fast approaching, we are now seeing politicians of all stripes competing for who has the best policies for aged care. We have come a long way in the years since 2007, when neither party announced an Aged Care Policy. The Federal Budget was an important reminder that we should not let the combative nature of the election mislead us into thinking there is not consensus on many issues. Indeed a number of ALP announcements indicate agreement between the major parties on Royal Commission recommendations.
Our policy alert includes initiatives of the government’s Budget relating to cost of living, improving regulation and training in aged care, and some policies relating to health and housing. With an election looming, it was not a dramatic budget, and we are likely to see more policies announced, by both the government and opposition, in coming weeks.
On many areas of concern for older Australians, the Budget has now incorporated the solutions we pushed for, and some changes we wanted are now incorporated for years to come. That’s why there was not a major announcement of additional funding for aged care: the announcement they made last year included funding this year, and every year into the future. Likewise, it seems that there is now consensus (except for a few backbenchers) about the rate of superannuation contributions, and many other issues that were heavily contested only a few years ago.
On the Budget’s cost of living measures which we welcomed, we do know that many COTA supporters feel these are inadequate. More would be welcome, but we need to acknowledge that the $250 effectively doubles the age pension indexation in March, and if you don’t welcome such announcements they are less inclined to do it next time. But we will be making the care for a review of the age pension rate in our election document that we will release soon.